Location: The Gateway to the Grand Canyon, wishing I was back home in Hawaii

Posts: 3,907

Freezers – Upright, Chest or `Fridge Combo AND What Size?

We were talking about freezers on another thread, and I thought this was an interesting topic.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cheryl J

I love soups too, and all that you mentioned, Joel. I also have a small freezer, otherwise I'd stock up on stock.

I've been looking around at Home Depot for freezers. I think this is the year that I might splurge and buy either a chest freezer or an upright for the garage.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Addie

From someone who had a huge chest freezer and hated it for every minute I had it. You find yourself digging all through it just to find that stock you put in there last year. Go for the upright.

At one time I also had a fridge with the freezer drawer on the bottom. Grant it didn't hold as much, but that was so much easier to find what I wanted. It had a basket on top and you could slide it back to see what was on the bottom. I loved it. It also had a quirk that I just loved. Every time you opened the drawer, a light went on at each side of the freezer drawer. Made it so much easier to find what I wanted.

Just one more thing. My girlfriend had an upright. On the door outside, she would list what she put in, and when she removed something, she crossed it off. I just hate people who are so organized! I always feel very stupid in their presence.

I have a lovely GE brand `Fridge/Freezer that we purchased for our new home, but we also had a small GE Chest Freezer in storage from our old home, that went into service the minute it was unpacked.

I’m pretty certain that when this Chest Freezer goes kaput, I’ll be looking for an Upright, I think anyways.

Location: The Gateway to the Grand Canyon, wishing I was back home in Hawaii

Posts: 3,907

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andy M.

Size is a difficult question to answer. Whatever size you buy, you'll fill it up.

Even though it's more work, I'd go with a manual defrost model over a frost free. The frost free cycle damages frozen foods and promotes freezer burn.

I did not know this Andy, MAHALO, thank you for that!!!!
I've been searching high and low for that dang manual that came with
our Chest Freezer for the particulars on the bugger ... but as soon as
I deplete some of it's content, I can move it look at the sicker in the back of it for the model number, etc and look it up on line.

I was talking to Cheryl by PM about the subject, and here's part of what I had to say, for what it's worth.

Quote:

Just my opinion, but I don't think you'd be happy with a chest freezer. Everything ends up at the bottom and you end up standing on your head. Ha..ask me how I know.
For just the two of us we don't need a big upright freezer and our little 3.5 works great for us as everything gets used in a timely way. We keep it in the guest room, and it works well in there, as we seldom have guests and it looks fine. I don't know if you could do that, but I know your garage must get hotter than he!! in the summer. SC keeps a running inventory of his great bargains in there and it's easily defrosted once a year. You likely know that a self defrosting freezer is no good for frozen foods, and more importantly...ice cream!

After looking online, the great thing is that small upright freezers are very affordable. The one we have is 12 yrs old and running like a champ.

I was talking to Cheryl by PM about the subject, and here's part of what I had to say, for what it's worth.

I have a large bottom freezer with the fridge also and I make a real effort to keep it well organized, but the 3.5 freezer in the guest room is a just right addition for us.

Yep, Kay, and very good advice about having the small freezer rather than a chest freezer or even an upright in the garage. I could do with a little freezer in the rarely used guest room. One question though...when it comes time to do the yearly defrost, obviously you can't do that in the guest room - so it takes a manly souschefy guy to haul it out to the yard where it can drain...?

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...I have a large bottom freezer with the fridge also and I make a real effort to keep it well organized...

We have a french door fridge with a pull out bottom freezer. It's difficult to keep organized and we spend too much time rummaging through the freezer bins to find what we're looking for. It's like having a smaller version of the chest freezer Kayelle mentioned. I don't care for it at all.

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Yep, Kay, and very good advice about having the small freezer rather than a chest freezer or even an upright in the garage. I could do with a little freezer in the rarely used guest room. One question though...when it comes time to do the yearly defrost, obviously you can't do that in the guest room - so it takes a manly souschefy guy to haul it out to the yard where it can drain...?

He does it all in the guest room Cheryl. He unplugs the freezer after removing the food, then puts a pot of boiling water on each shelf, with a bath towel on the bottom, and closes the door and lets it set a while. The ice sheets will have loosened enough to use a plastic cooking spatula to pry off the sheets of ice into a bucket to be dumped in the garden. He really doesn't seem to mind doing it. He says it needs to be done soon so I'll take pictures.

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